(11-07-2022, 09:46 PM)Cherman0 Wrote: This is all well and good, and the mineral accumulator does need some love or at least a resprite, but we're getting off-track. The main topic here is that recently engineering has been changed to be significantly more work in exchange for significantly less benefit. The main way to make engineering fun again is to try to conceptualize a series of "intended strategies" in writing for the different engine types, and then design systems so that working towards those intended strategies is:

* Not mostly repetative busywork (emptying/filling tanks, welding pipes, farting, etc.), as this tends to be boring.

* Gives returns that scale appreciably with the amount of work and skill put in.

* Can be done to some effect by one person, but is more effective with multiple.

* Doesnt cause major lag or station destruction in non-antagonist gameplay.

* Preferably involves other systems in under the engineering department's domain (cargo, mining, mechcomp, DWAINE, ruckingenur, etc.)

A dedicated mass-feeder machine instead of jank item duplicators is one aspect of how this might look for the singularity. Designing other systems to these criteria will require considerable thought and community discussion, but should hopefully make engineering more fun as a whole. Designing for the TEG may be especially challenging, both due to historical perceptions of its infinite power that will likely have to be dispelled and that the underlying systems of it (atmospherics) are rather...... arcane.